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by craftinator 1842 days ago
> I am all for anything helping soldiers do their job more effectively and modernizing their tech.

As someone who's spent time on the ground, both humping packs, and doing more sophisticated work, I can tell you a couple of things about what soldiers value. The lower down the food chain you are, the more you value simplicity, reliability, and ease of use.

If you're a ground pounder, you don't want expensive, fragile gadgets that require lots of maintenance and extra battery packs, things that distract you or dull your senses. I had to carry a large expensive camera system for a time, and it was not only a PITA, but it constantly was down from sand in the bearings, battery packs not charging right because the contacts were dirty or corroded. And even when it was working right, the setup and teardown times made it almost unusable. The wear and tear on it was insane, it was constantly out if calibration.

That being said, the higher up the decision making process you go, the more useful tools like that are. If you're a combat controller or working out of a base, some tech like that can be really handy. But don't try to load Joe Average down with that mess, cause he'll break your toys, then yell at you that all he needed in order to make a combat plan was a stick and some sand.

The rest of your anecdote was really interesting, thanks for sharing!

1 comments

Thanks for the info and your service. I hope they take durability in mind when making these. The HoloLens does seems like something more for the second case (higher ups) than ground pounders.

> The rest of your anecdote was really interesting, thanks for sharing!

No problem :) of course what I typed is simplistic but such is the case for mediums like these

I recommend Al Basheer Show if you want to know more, think John Stewart but Iraq, I linked some English episodes

Confessionalism in post 2003 Iraq - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-KVPWXWlNk

Infamous PM Nouri al Maliki - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbPMDBebSRk

Current Protests against the government, assassination's of civil rights activists and intellectual figures by Iranian backed militias - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc0EOr_Rq_w